Synopses & Reviews
When did Europe pull ahead of Asia in terms of living standards? A number of well-known scholars compare economic and demographic indicators of well-being in the pre-industrial period. The emerging picture is not one of great differences, but of considerable similarities in standard of living between Europe and Asia before the Industrial Revolution.
About the Author
Robert Allen is Professor of Economic History at Oxford University and a fellow of Nuffield College. He received his doctorate from Harvard University. He has written extensively on English agricultural history, international competition in the steel industry, the extinction of whales, the global history of wages and prices, and contemporary policies on education. His articles have won the Cole Prize, the Redlich Prize, and the Explorations Prize. His books include Enclosure and the Yeoman: The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands, 1450-1850, which was awarded the Ranki Prize by the Economic History Association, and, most recently, Farm to Factory: A Re-interpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution. Professor Allen is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Canada. Tommy Bengtsson, Professor of Demography and Economic History at Lund University, works in both historical and contemporary economic demography. He has served in leading positions in Swedish and international organisations and is currently Chair of the IUSSP Committee on Historical Demography and Series Co-editor of the Eurasian Population and Family History Series. Martin Dribe is Associate Professor of Economic History at Lund University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Standards of living in 18th century China: Regional differences, temporal trends and incomplete evidence, Kenneth Pomeranz
2. Farm labour productivity in Jiangnan, 1620-1850, Li Bozhong
3. Wages, inequality and pre-industrial growth in Japan, 1727-1894, Osamu Saito
4. Agriculture, labour, and the standard of living in 18th century India, Prasannan Parthasarathi
5. Real wages in Europe and Asia: A first look at the long-term patterns, Robert C. Allen
6. Sketching the rise of real inequality in early modern europe, P. Hoffman, D. Jacks, P. Levin and P. Lindert
7. What happened to the standard of living before the industrial revolution? New evidence from the western part of the Netherlands, Jan Luiten van Zanden
8. Economic growth, human capital formation and consumption in western Europe before 1800, Jaime Reis
9. Health and nutrition in the pre-industrial era: Insights from a millennium of average heights in northern Europe, Richard Steckel
10. The burden of grandeur: Physical and economic well-being of the Russian population in the 18th century, Boris Mironov
11. Mental mortality as an indicator of the standard of living in 18th and 19th century Slavonia, E. Hammel and A. Gullickson
12. The standard of living in Denmark in the 18th and early 19th centuries, Hans Christian Johansen
13. Short-term demographic changes in relation to economic fluctuations: The case of Tuscany during pre-transitional period, M. Breschi, A. Fornasin, and G. Gonano
14. New evidence on the standard of living in Sweden during the 18th and 19th centuries: Long-term development of the demographic response to short-term economic stress, T. Bengtsson and M. Dribe
15. Individuals and communities facing economic stress: A comparison of two rural areas in 19th century Belgium, M. Oris, G. Alter and M. Neven
16. Living standards in Liaoing, 1749-1909: Evidence from demographic outcomes, C. Campbell and J. Lee
17. Demographic responses to short-term economic stress in the 18th and 19th century rural Japan: Evidence from two northeastern villages, N.Tsuya and S. Kurosu